The Tribune

By ADRIAN GIBSON

ajbahama@hotmail.com

Callenders Managing Partner Frederick Smith QC told me last night that he is so disappointed with the Free National Movement and that the governing Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) is so corrupt that he has decided to run for election in 2017. Mr Smith stated that he is considering his options and will likely enter the political fray.

According to the outspoken QC, the PLP is too corrupt to be allowed to again waltz into government in 2017.

“I will run for office. I should challenge Fred Mitchell in Fox Hill. I will run as an FNM or as an Independent. That will surely give him a teachable moment,” he said. “Though I am not as obsessed with Fred Mitchell as the whole PLP is clearly obsessed with Save The Bays, I am considering running against Fred Mitchell in Fox Hill. I am also looking at other seats.”

Fred Smith entering the political fray would make the upcoming general election even more interesting. A major reason for Mr Smith’s contemplation of an electoral run is the fact that the Opposition party is a flaccid, hobbled machine.

“Opposition is easy. All you have to do is just attack! That’s all it is ya know!” he lamented. “I have to admit that I am amazed at how the PLP has performed thus far. I take my hat off to the PLP because of their ability to gutter fight. The PLP excels when under pressure and when disaster stares them in the face.

“They are at their best when they are at their worst! Their recent performance in Parliament shows that they will stop at nothing to remain in power. They are like scrapping dogs. They know how to bite viciously, they know how to savage first, how to attack the enemy before they even realize that they are in a fight.”

Mr Smith told me that the FNM lacks street fighters and does not “know how to get down and dirty and fight these thugs”. Given that, he sees a need for someone like himself among their ranks or sitting as an Opposition member of the House of Assembly.

He was critical of the current state of affairs of the FNM in Opposition:

“The FNM is too comfortable with press releases. They are too comfortable in Opposition. The Opposition needs to be more intense, adversarial, dirty, even stressful. The FNM needs to energise. This is their opportunity to savage and cut down the government when it has a chance to do so. They need to realise that this is not a game played by gentlemen. The PLP will do whatever to stay in power. The FNM needs to stop getting distracted by red herrings. The FNM is not focused on criticising the PLP even when the opportunities are given to them on a silver platter.”

Mr Smith asserted that though he fully supports the FNM, he would “urge and encourage the FNM to get its hands dirty”.

“They need to smear their hands in the PLP’s mud. And stick all that political mud in the PLP’s faces. Instead of always reacting to PLP spinning, thousands of FNMs need to hold the PLP accountable. If the FNM allows the PLP to carry on business as usual, they will lose the election. Countless opportunities have been given to them to – to use the words of Mitchell – destabilise the government. It’s the job of the FNM to destabilise the government. They should not be on the defensive, trying to defend their reputations, trying to be rational,” he said.

“I want my FNM leadership to be pitbulls and to bite deep and hard into the corrupt necks of these PLP gangsters. I want them to dismember the government, not to sit there and be chastised, embarrassed and toyed with. With all the ammunition the FNM has had, the PLP should be quaking in their pants every time they see a member of the Official Opposition. It’s about time that they give ‘a Loretta’ to some PLP MPs in Parliament, maybe then they will come to their senses. I’m sick and tired of seeing my FNM party flounder, drown, stoop and be destroyed by the PLP.

“Rather than accuse the Opposition of destabilising the government, they put it on a poor little environmental organisation. We must be doing something right,” he chuckled.

Mr Smith stated that because he does not see the political fight in the FNM and because he desires accountable and transparent government, it is likely that he could offer himself to a dejected electorate that is craving honest and trustworthy governance.

According to him, the time for exposing chicanery and corruption is now and he has recommitted himself to mercilessly assaulting those who have taken on an air of entitlement or who believe that they are answerable to no one.

The political season is heating up and, the entrance of Fred Smith onto the political stage, would surely add flair to what I think will be one of the most interesting election cycles in our nation’s political history.

Comments and responses to ajbahama@hotmail.com